Timeline/Pre-2011
1962 *Nathan Ingram is born on June 16. 1965/9 August *Carl Elias is born on August 15. 1968 March *Lionel Fusco is born on March 17. ( Season 2 title sequence ) 1971 March *Alicia Corwin is born on March 11. April *Peter Arndt is born on April 2. 1972 March *Joss Carter is born on March 7. ( Season 2 title sequence ) 1976 *Earliest record of Finch, under the alias of Harold Wren. 1979 *Sam Groves is born. 1980 *Nathan Ingram starts his BS Computer Science degree at MIT. 1981 *Elias is mocked at school when he could not finish his family tree. 1983 *Nathan Ingram leaves MIT with an incomplete degree and starts IFT. 1991 *Elias visits his biological father, Gianni Moretti, and asks to join his crew. Moretti agrees, but arranges his murder. Elias kills the two assassins and adopts the alias of Charlie Burton. April *On April 15, the night her friend Hanna Frey disappears, Sam Groves first uses her alias Root in the computer game The Oregon Trail. 1993 January *John Reese joins the military on January 15, 1993. Over the next nine years, he serves four short and one long tour of duty. 1994 *Ingram and Finch establish their company, IFT. Ingram acts as the face of the company, while Finch acts as a regular employee although this is in dispute as during The High Road, the Machine states that Nathan Ingram started IFT in 1983. 1998 September *Reese possibly attained the rank of Sergeant on September 15, 1998. 2001 *Samuel Gates, Jr. is born. September - December *While on vacation with Jessica in Mexico on September 11, Reese witnesses the attack on the World Trade Centre on television. *The United States government hires Nathan Ingram to build a machine that would predict future mass attacks. *Reese has achieved the rank of Sergeant First Class and has been in the Army between 9-12 years by the time of the photo with Jessica found by Detective Carter. 2002 January *January 1 marks the first day of The Machine. February *On February 2, Joss Carter starts her service in Afghanistan as a Lieutenant at Bagram Air Base. *On February 16, Finch is testing the capability of the Machine to find him by playing hide and seek. June *By June 10, Finch builds an early version of the Machine, while Ingram fires half of IFT's employees. 2003 February *On February 2, Joss Carter finishes her service in Afghanistan, and is relocated to Baghdad, Iraq, where she serves as an investigator at Camp Liberty. September *On September 6, Finch take the Machine for a 'test run' by going to a casino in Atlantic City and playing blackjack. Early the next morning, as Finch leaves the casino, the Machine saves him from a hit and run accident. 2004 March *On March 20, Joss Carter finishes her service in Iraq, and is awarded Purple Heart. May *On May 8, Harold Finch shows Nathan Ingram that The Machine is not only identifying outliers in society but also learning human behaviour. Grace Hendricks is picked out by the Machine as an anomaly, but Finch dismisses this as a bug. 2005 *Harold Finch tests The Machine's ability to connect individuals when said individuals do not even know they are connected. Grace Hendricks is flagged by the Machine for a second time, for unknown reasons. February *On February 8, Nathan Ingram gives the first number produced by the Machine to Alicia Corwin while Finch watches the meeting. *Around two weeks later, Ingram meets with Denton Weeks who confirmed the number was related to a traitor. The Machine recognises Weeks as a threat. *On February 24, the Machine officially goes online. Finch shows Ingram how the Machine identifies threats to national security. The Machine then identifies Ingram as a possible threat. *On February 25, Nathan Ingram signs the contract for building the Machine with the government for $1. 2006 January *Harold Finch gets an ice cream, which is apparently a regular occurrence at this time of year. The Machine sends him a text letting him know that Grace Hendricks is in the area; Finch goes over to her and both say hello. February *On February 12, Reese runs into Jessica at an airport and learns of her engagement to Peter Arndt. 2007 *Ingram learns of the Machine's ability of predicting danger to individuals and confronts Finch. Finch responds that they are protecting everyone, not someone. *Jessica's number starts appearing, due to Peter Arndt's physical abuse. 2008 November *Reese and Stanton are operating illegally in New York City, holding a government man captive who was responsible for selling software to the Chinese. *Reese meets Peter Arndt at a bar and makes conversation with him in order to see Jessica. Stanton however, convinces Reese to leave just as Jessica arrives. 2009 July *On July 10, Nathan Ingram meets with Alicia Corwin to confirm transport arrangement for The Machine and slips up on the number of people who know about the Machine, saying eight rather than seven, which he quickly clears up. *On July 11, Nathan Ingram encourages Harold Finch to pursue his own relationships, but Harold implies that he already has. Later that evening, Ingram tries to impress upon Finch the need for a contingency option, but his request is denied. *On July 12, at 1:16am, Nathan Ingram secretly inputs a contingency function into the Machine in case the government abuses it. Later that day, The Machine is shipped from IFT to its new home. 2010 *Nathan Ingram dies. *Finch is involved in an accident that supposedly claimed his life, and possibly caused his back injury. May *Reese, Stanton, Snow and Corwin are stationed in Tétouan, Morocco. Reese receives a voicemail from a distraught Jessica. He calls back, and promises to be with her in 24 hours. *Reese and Stanton are sent to Ordos, China, where they must retrieve a software sold to the Chinese. Reese is instructed to kill Stanton, who supposedly turned on the CIA. In Ordos, they come across a a massacre of scientists. *With the software secured, Reese hesitates before killing Stanton, who shoots him instead. She was given the same orders as him. Reese escapes the compound while the CIA bombs it, presumably killing Stanton. *Stanton escapes China with the help of a local dissident group, and returns to the United States. December *Peter Arndt's abuse of Jessica results in her death. He stages a car crash to hide the true nature of her injuries. The autopsy report is dated December 7th. Timeline